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Britain betrayed us by advising Indira Gandhi on her fatal raid against militants barricaded in Amritsar's Golden Temple, say Sikh leaders
Britain's involvement in the massacre of hundreds of Sikh separatists in an Indian temple in 1984 will be urgently investigated, David Cameron has ordered.
Previously secret documents released by the Government have shown that a SAS officer was drafted in to help the Indian authorities with plans to remove dissident Sikhs from the Golden Temple at Amritsar, Sikhism's holiest shrine.
The plan was ordered with the full knowledge of then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher the documents say. Hundreds of Sikhs were killed in the attack.
Yesterday Sikh leaders said the revelations amounted to the British Government ‘backstabbing” and have called for all documentation surrounding the attack to be released.
In an operation called “Blue Star” Indian troops attacked the temple in June 1984 with an official death toll of 492 militants, pilgrims and soldiers. The country was plunged into some of the worst communal violence in its history following the attack. Sikh activists claim thousands died in the operation.
The assault triggered the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who ordered the attack, when two Sikh bodyguards killed her in revenge several months later.
A No. 10 spokesman said that Mr Cameron and William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, had been unaware of the papers and that the events at the Golden Temple led to a “tragic loss of life” and that the papers raise “very legitimate concerns.”
David Cameron’s official spokesman said that an inquiry, led by Jeremy Heywood the cabinet secretary, would focus on whether the documents should have been released to the public and “establish all the facts as quickly as possible.” He would not set a timetable for the inquiry to report.
The letters were released in January as one of 500 documents from the Cabinet Office and the Prime Minister’s office lodged in the National Archive thirty years after their original publication.
One from the Foreign Secretary’s Principal Private Secretary Brian Fall to his opposite number in the Home Office, dated 6 February 1984 refers to an "Indian request for advice on plans for the removal of dissident Sikhs from the Golden Temple". It states that the then Prime Minister, Baroness Thatcher, is "content that the foreign secretary should proceed as he proposes".
The other letter, dated 23 February 1984, said an SAS officer visited India and drew up a plan which was then approved by Mrs Gandhi.
The document makes clear the British government is aware that any SAS involvement in the operation at the Golden Temple could cause serious problems between Indians and Sikh communities. “An operation by the Indian authorities at the Golden Temple could, in the first instance, exacerbate the communal violence in Punjab,” Mr Fall wrote to the Home Secretary’s private secretary Hugh Taylor on February 23.The Dal Khalsa, one of the original militant groups which continue to support the creation of a Sikh state, Khalistan, said Sikhs were shocked by the revelation.
Gurmel Singh the head of the Sikh Council UK, said the attack was one of the “one of the darkest episodes in Sikh history” and called for full disclosure of all documentation.
He said: “The letters date from February 1984 yet the attack took place in June 1984 and then there was the subsequent genocide of Sikhs following Indira Gandhi['s] assassination in October 1984. I want to know, what else were the UK government saying and doing over all that time
Kanwar Pal Singh, Spokesman for the Dal Khalsa said: “The report has exposed that the attack was not spontaneous. They had been planning it for months. …thousands of Sikhs live in UK and are grateful to the country for providing them opportunity to equal growth but the role of the then UK government amounts to backstabbing.
Britain 'backstabbed' Sikhs by advising India on 1984 Golden Temple raid - Telegraph
Britain's involvement in the massacre of hundreds of Sikh separatists in an Indian temple in 1984 will be urgently investigated, David Cameron has ordered.
Previously secret documents released by the Government have shown that a SAS officer was drafted in to help the Indian authorities with plans to remove dissident Sikhs from the Golden Temple at Amritsar, Sikhism's holiest shrine.
The plan was ordered with the full knowledge of then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher the documents say. Hundreds of Sikhs were killed in the attack.
Yesterday Sikh leaders said the revelations amounted to the British Government ‘backstabbing” and have called for all documentation surrounding the attack to be released.
In an operation called “Blue Star” Indian troops attacked the temple in June 1984 with an official death toll of 492 militants, pilgrims and soldiers. The country was plunged into some of the worst communal violence in its history following the attack. Sikh activists claim thousands died in the operation.
The assault triggered the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who ordered the attack, when two Sikh bodyguards killed her in revenge several months later.
A No. 10 spokesman said that Mr Cameron and William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, had been unaware of the papers and that the events at the Golden Temple led to a “tragic loss of life” and that the papers raise “very legitimate concerns.”
David Cameron’s official spokesman said that an inquiry, led by Jeremy Heywood the cabinet secretary, would focus on whether the documents should have been released to the public and “establish all the facts as quickly as possible.” He would not set a timetable for the inquiry to report.
The letters were released in January as one of 500 documents from the Cabinet Office and the Prime Minister’s office lodged in the National Archive thirty years after their original publication.
One from the Foreign Secretary’s Principal Private Secretary Brian Fall to his opposite number in the Home Office, dated 6 February 1984 refers to an "Indian request for advice on plans for the removal of dissident Sikhs from the Golden Temple". It states that the then Prime Minister, Baroness Thatcher, is "content that the foreign secretary should proceed as he proposes".
The other letter, dated 23 February 1984, said an SAS officer visited India and drew up a plan which was then approved by Mrs Gandhi.
The document makes clear the British government is aware that any SAS involvement in the operation at the Golden Temple could cause serious problems between Indians and Sikh communities. “An operation by the Indian authorities at the Golden Temple could, in the first instance, exacerbate the communal violence in Punjab,” Mr Fall wrote to the Home Secretary’s private secretary Hugh Taylor on February 23.The Dal Khalsa, one of the original militant groups which continue to support the creation of a Sikh state, Khalistan, said Sikhs were shocked by the revelation.
Gurmel Singh the head of the Sikh Council UK, said the attack was one of the “one of the darkest episodes in Sikh history” and called for full disclosure of all documentation.
He said: “The letters date from February 1984 yet the attack took place in June 1984 and then there was the subsequent genocide of Sikhs following Indira Gandhi['s] assassination in October 1984. I want to know, what else were the UK government saying and doing over all that time
Kanwar Pal Singh, Spokesman for the Dal Khalsa said: “The report has exposed that the attack was not spontaneous. They had been planning it for months. …thousands of Sikhs live in UK and are grateful to the country for providing them opportunity to equal growth but the role of the then UK government amounts to backstabbing.
Britain 'backstabbed' Sikhs by advising India on 1984 Golden Temple raid - Telegraph
